saturn
NASA said Oct 4 will give skywatchers one of the year’s best opportunities to see Saturn.“Earth travels around the sun once a year, while saturn takes about 29.5 years to orbit the sun once. Jupiter does so roughly every 399 days, while mars takes about 780 days. Astrophotographer Srilakshmi N, who captured images during previous oppositions, said the changing appearance of saturn’s rings is due to the changing viewing angle as the planet moves around the sun. The rings can therefore appear differently from earth from year to year.
Perumal said the outer planets mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus and neptune can all reach opposition. Earth’s orbit is smaller, and it moves faster than saturn. So once a year, earth passes between saturn and the sun. Astronomers call this ‘opposition’,” explained S Soundararaja Perumal, former executive director of Birla Planetarium. Opposition is not unique to saturn. Uranus and neptune also reach opposition, but are not visible to the unaided eye.
Chennai: Saturn will put on one of its best shows of 2026 on Oct 4, when it reaches opposition—the point at which Earth lies between the Sun and Saturn—giving skywatchers an opportunity to see the ringed planet through most of the night.